![]() ![]() “Definitely,” Holmes said when asked if the science gives him more confidence. Not only does having all the data help create repeatable actions, but so does changing grip rather than arm slot. “Then he started throwing harder and more consistently and it kind of kept building on itself.”Īnd because of that, Holmes has managed to combine dominance with repetition. I’m going to throw it again – oh, strike two,” Blake said. “Last year, when we got him over here and showed him how good his stuff is and how much room for error he has, it started this manifestation form of, OK, I’m going to throw the ball over the plate – oh, strike one. He still throws the other slider, too, he said.īut though data is all well and good, there is another, more human element to Holmes’ change. The increase in horizontal movement is stark – from 18.5 inches this year from 2.3 inches last year – and the whiff rate rose from 37.8% last year to 50.0% this year. “So not too much change in delivery but more change in grip and trusting the way it’s coming off my hand.” ![]() “Because of the grip and the way the seams are orientated, it just gets more horizontal movement,” Holmes said. He’s mostly scrapped his curveball entirely. He used to hold it more like a curveball, he explained, but by changing the way he grips the seams, he created pitch action that would otherwise require a change in arm slot. Holmes made the change with his sinker, and now he’s done it with his slider, this time gripping it so it has less gyrational spin and a greater sweeping motion – the Yankees call it a whirly, or a two-seam slider. Movement through spin is nothing new, and neither is movement through grip, but certain shifts in grip – like using the seams so that air interacts with the ball asymmetrically – can cause unexpected movement to the batter’s eye. “I think he’s really inquisitive and he processes information really well.”įor one, Holmes has been an eager adopter of fresh data, including the analysis of seam-shifted wake, a newly theorized phenomenon that looks to quantify how the orientation of baseball seams through air affects movement. “For a guy that throws 80% of the same pitch, it’s kind of crazy to think he’s probably our most analytically inclined pitcher just in terms of understanding spin and seam orientation and where his hand is to create the effects that he wants,” pitching coach Matt Blake said. He has a 0.40 ERA.īut in order to understand how the early 2021 version of Clay Holmes – the one who pitched to a 4.93 ERA with the Pirates – turned into the Yankee version of Clay Holmes, you have to look at the man himself. ![]() Going into Tuesday’s game against the Orioles, he hadn’t allowed an earned run in his last 20 appearances and his 22-inning scoreless streak was the longest in the majors. It averages in at 96.3 mph – almost 4-mph less than Chapman’s – but it has 17 inches of run along with 24 inches of drop, and has helped him to a groundball rate of over 80%. According to Baseball Savant, Holmes has the best sinker in the game, with a run value of -9 and, as of Tuesday, it was second overall only to Justin Verlander’s fastball. “That’s one of the nastiest pitches in baseball,” Boone said of Holmes’ sinker, and he might’ve been understating it a touch. He was already outperforming Aroldis Chapman when Chapman went on the IL with an Achilles injury – something that makes his natural ascension to closer all that easier (Aaron Boone says he’s still doing closer by committee). Along the way, he’s become the most valuable arm in the Yankees bullpen – a position that’s mostly due to his dominance but also due to necessity: three of their relievers hit the injured list in the span of a week.
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